Texas Sheet Cake

The following delicious recipe and blog post was contributed by Caitlin Jones of Paleo State of Mind. We’re sure you’ll love it as much as we do!

Texas Sheet Cake

Texas Sheet Cake is a staple recipe at cookouts, picnics, and barbecues. Moist, dense chocolate-y cake, icing that melts in your mouth, all topped with tiny, tasty pecans. I have so many memories of this cake being brought to every outdoor family gathering growing up. It’s treats like Texas Sheet Cake that can be difficult to pass up when you’re trying to maintain a clean diet.

Thankfully, there are so many baked goods recipes online these days that account for gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, and vegan dietary restrictions. In my experience, there are almost too many to sort through, and I never know until I’ve tested it myself if a healthy makeover is as delicious as the real thing. Baking is an extremely exact chemical process, and removing something like gluten from a batter or a dough can fundamentally change how it reacts to the addition of heat. Certain gluten-free baked good recipes don’t take that into account. I have spent more time and money than I can count making breads or muffins with a coconut flour base that turned out to be thicker than concrete and equally unappetizing. Most of the flaxseed or almond meal-based recipes I’ve made fall apart as soon as you lift them out of the pan. How, I wondered, could I take any classic baking recipe (like my great Aunt’s Texas Sheet Cake), and make it not just gluten-free, but grain-free, while ensuring it had the proper texture?!

The answer lies in a golden ratio of grain-free flour substitutes. 3 parts almond or flaxseed meal, 2 parts tapioca or arrowroot starch, and 1 part coconut flour. A medley of these three ingredients can be used as a 1:1 substitution in ANY recipe calling for all-purpose flour. All of my paleo, gluten-free, grain-free, Celiac peeps know what a huge deal this is! The resultant cake will be light and fluffy but with enough structure to hold it’s shape. For ideas of what to bake with this flour substitute, check out my Triple Chocolate Cookies over at Paleo State of Mind.

This Texas Sheet Cake recipe, taken from my first ebook the Paleo Summer Picnic Guide, is a welcome addition to any outdoor gathering. Incredibly soft and decadently chocolate-y, no one will ever guess that it’s gluten-free. But YOU of course know that it is! With your knowledge of grain-free flour substitutes, it is totally possible to treat yourself while still eating clean. While you’re at it, treat yourself to the full Paleo Summer Picnic Guide for 50% off, a deal exclusive to Love Squad readers. Just enter code LOVESQUAD50 at checkout!

Ingredients

1 cup flaxseed meal

⅔ cup arrowroot starch

⅓ cup coconut flour

(^^ OR 2 cups grain-free flour substitute… notice the 3:2:1 ratio?)

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon Salt

¼ cup cocoa powder

2 sticks Butter

1 cup Boiling Water

1/2 cup almond milk

1 teaspoon unfiltered apple cider vinegar

2 whole Beaten Eggs

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 sticks Butter

¼ cup cocoa powder

6 Tablespoons almond Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 cups Powdered Sugar

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup Finely Chopped Pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 13×9 jelly roll pan (a baking sheet, just make sure it has those edges) with either butter or coconut oil, and set aside.